Take a Number
by Ms. Selly
Summary: Faith is sick of people claiming to 'understand' her. But when an old friend is in need of some understanding herself, Faith's outlook could be in for a change. Waith
1. Chapter 1

Take a Number

Part 1

Setting: Post-S6. Ignoring S7 and the events of AtS during that time.

Disclaimer: None of the BtVS characters belong to me.

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Giles was jolted out of his doze by movement next to him. He glanced to his side and smiled. She was still asleep. She looked simply like a girl lulled to sleep by the steady hum of the plane engines. Not a girl exhausted from horrible misuse of dark majicks.

Had it really only been hours since she slammed him from floor to ceiling in the Magic Box? He gently touched a cut on his forehead and winced. Yes, it had. He had left the hospital as quickly as possible, only getting the bare essentials in treatment. He would have time to heal once he got Willow to safety.

She shifted position again and moaned softly. He reached over to brush a strand of hair away from her closed eyes, and she shuddered away from his touch. He sighed and stretched, making sure not to disturb Willow. Off to England again. And just after he had gotten back to Sunnydale, too. He would have liked to stay and visit with all his young friends, but certain things could not wait. He had to get Willow to the coven.

"No…please," she whimpered, curling tighter. He placed a hand on her shoulder and she withdrew at first, but slowly, subconsciously, her own hand came upward to rest on top of his.

"You'll be all right," he reassured her, as well as himself, "You will."

Faith walked down the halls of her 'correctional facility', very curious. 'You have a visitor.' Who could that be? No one came to visit her. And, in a strange departure from regular protocol, the meeting was to take place in an empty office. She would actually be face-to-face with her visitor. That was extremely odd.

Her escort opened the door and allowed her to enter before closing it behind her with a heavy thud. She turned to look into the room. A man was bent over the desk in the corner, but he turned when she came in.

"What're you doing here?" She asked Giles.

"Pleasure to see you too, Faith. How are you?" She smirked at him. "Five by five?" He ventured.

"You know it," she leaned up against the wall, pretending she was not deathly curious about why he had come, "How's B? Red? The gang?"

"Well…that's what I've come to talk to you about," he removed his glasses and began to clean them with his handkerchief, "Do you remember Tara?"

"Tara…Tara," Faith thought for a few moments. She snapped her fingers when it came to her, "Tara. Mousy girl, Red's witchy friend. What about her?"

"She's dead." This shook Faith up a bit, but she was determined not to let him see.

"Too bad. My heartfelt condolences and all that. We both know you didn't come here just to break the unhappy news." Giles began to clean with a new rigor.

"Right again, Faith. You are a very perceptive young woman."

"That's what they all say," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"The thing is Faith…Willow took the loss rather, well, rather hard."

"Say it plain American, Jeeves."

"She embraced darker forces than one should ever attempt to and tried to destroy the entire world." This time, Faith stood up, eyes wide. But Giles continued, "Luckily, Xander stopped her in time. However, she is still quite shaken and needs help."

"So," Faith screwed up her nose, "you decide to use the age-old method of bringing in the unbalanced murderer to set her back on the right path."

"I realize how ludicrous it sounds, believe me. But Willow needs someone to talk to. Someone who will understand…"

"Someone who knows what it's like to turn bad," Faith supplied. Giles looked away, embarrassed. Faith shook her head, "I'm not offended. You can't really be offended by the truth, can you?"

"No, I suppose not. I know you have an…aversion to this sort of thing, but will you do it? Help Willow?" Faith snorted and leaned back onto the wall.

"I'd love to, but in case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty well incarcerated here. You planning the big jail break?"

"Actually," Giles slid his glasses back onto his nose, "I am."

That really made Faith stand back up.

That's it for the first chapter! This one is going to be more of a miniseries. Probably 3-4 chapters. I'd love some feedback! Oh, and I'm looking for a good beta. If you're interested, please tell me.


	2. Chapter 2

Take a Number

Part 2

A/N: Sorry for the wait…I was suspended because of a story I posted over two years ago. -sigh-

Disclaimer: Everything is owned by persons who are not me. Joss and Mutant Enemy, to give a few examples.

"You are?" Faith asked. She tried to inconspicuously search him for any weaponry he might have on him, something she had missed before. There was nothing. "What's the plan, chief?"

Giles held up an arm and pulled back his sleeve. Faith watched closely, expecting something amazing, magical, at the very least medieval. But no…he was checking his watch.

"Any minute now," he murmured, sliding his jacket sleeve back down to his wrist. Faith raised her eyebrows.

"Huh?"

"Hello Rupert." They both jumped and turned to see a slender woman with bright blue hair standing behind them, looking at them as though they only mildly interested her.

"Myrna, hello," Giles smiled, relieved. Faith stared at both of them for just a second before turning to Myrna.

"Who the hell are you and what is up with that crazy-ass hair color?"

"Faith!" Giles was scandalized, "please try to be polite. I spent a great deal of time tracking Myrna down."

"Oh please. With that hair, how hard can she be to," Faith turned back and discovered the woman had vanished, "find."

"It's all right, Rupert." Faith spun around. Myrna was now on the other side of the room, walking towards them. Faith looked to Giles, completely lost. She had seen plenty of strange things in her lifetime…it was part of the Slayer package. But she had never seen anything like this before.

"This is Mistress Myrna," Giles explained, "She's a portal specialist. She's agreed to create a portal that will take us outside." Myrna nodded and began to wander throughout the room.

"She can do that?" Faith asked, incredulous, "Just make a portal out of nothing?"

"Well, no. No one can do that. Myrna is extraordinarily gifted at finding 'hot spots'."

"Good nightclubs?"

"Dimensional hot spots," he clarified, "places mystical energy is very high. That's why we chose this room to meet in. Myrna was able to sense a hot spot here before I entered." That made a sliver of sense.

"Here we are!" Myrna called from near the door. Giles smiled broadly at Faith and led the way over.

"Thank you so much, Myrna," Giles said.

"Not a problem, Rupert. Now, please keep your hands and feet inside the portal, we wouldn't want them to end up in another dimension, now would we?" She laughed but Faith did not.

"Is there a chance that might happen? Cause I'm pretty attached to my appendages." Myrna did not reply. She simply disappeared and reappeared several feet away.

"Well, best be off," Giles said. With a small smile he stepped forward. He vanished as well…but he did not reappear.

"I'm suddenly not liking this plan," Faith began but Myrna appeared behind her and gave her a gentle push. It wasn't enough to knock the Slayer over, but she did lose her balance and stumble forward. And that was all she needed to do.

Myrna nodded at the empty room, then she too was gone.

Faith wandered along a stone pathway into the garden at the center of the coven's estate. Giles had told her Willow would be in the garden, then muttered something about talking to Althenea and left her standing alone on the driveway. But she was used to sudden departures.

Rounding a corner, she was able to see beyond a hedge that had been obscuring her vision. Willow was seated on an ornately carved bench, head to her chest and hands in her lap.

"Hey Red!" Willow didn't budge. Faith reached the bench and slid next to her, "Giles got me. He told me you had a wigfest back in SunnyD." She finally looked up. Her face was streaked with harsh red tearstains.

"If you call abusing the dark powers, extremely messily murdering a man, attempting to murder two other guys, threatening Dawn, beating on Buffy, wrecking the Magic Box, torturing Giles, blasting Xander and trying to destroy the world a 'wigfest', then yeah. It was definitely a festival of the wig."

"Calm down, girl. Abuse, murder, threats, destruction, torture…it's all part of the Faith experience. You trying to relive my greatest hits?" Willow snorted with laughter despite herself, but sobered up again in an instant.

"I've discovered an unhealthy fondness for hitting," she said mournfully. Faith shook her head. Here was one girl strongly resisting good cheer.

"What do you say we get out of here?" Faith suggested, "We'll get coffee and you can spill all your troubles."

"I don't know…" Willow frowned and looked down at her lap, "I should stay here and heal."

"You're never going to heal just sitting here moping…trust me," Faith held out her hand. Willow stared at it for a moment before small smile blossomed on her face. She clasped Faith's hand with her own and allowed the Slayer to pull her up off the bench.

Willow took a sip from her steaming cup and looked out over the small pond they had walked to. She had barely said a word the entire outing, besides to order her coffee.

"Faith?"

"What?" The other girl jogged over, almost spilling her own coffee.

"Why are you here?" Willow asked, not taking her eyes off the water.

"What?"

"When you went bad and started killing people-"

"Think you could be a little blunter?" Faith raised her eyebrows. Willow ignored her.

"When you went bad, none of us cared. We didn't help you. So why are you trying to help me?"

"Well…" Faith stretched and sighed, "I suppose because I always told myself I didn't want any help. That people didn't understand me. But now…I've seen the error of my ways," she smirked at the corniness of that statement but continued, "Sometimes you don't need help. Sometimes people don't understand you. But sometimes you just aren't letting them."

"Philosophical."

"Yeah, you have a lot of time to be philosophical in prison."

"When Giles brought me here, I thought I was going to be killed. Or at least locked up in a magical dungeon for all eternity. Instead, I'm being coddled. Why?"

"People care about you, Red. Now, why don't you tell Auntie Faith all about it?" Willow was silent for a few minutes, and Faith figured she had decided not to share. But she was wrong.

"Everything was right. It all should have been perfect," Willow said, sounding strangely detached, "Tara was always all I ever wanted. She made me feel like I was the greatest thing in the whole world. And then she was gone. In an instant everything was gone. All because of some stupid, egotistical little man. And he didn't even mean to shoot her. It was an accident. She was dead…and it meant nothing.

"So I decided to show him how it felt," she laughed dryly, her smile so filled with pain it was more of a grimace, "and I did. Goddess, did I show him. But it still meant nothing. So I decided to punish the other two. Maybe they didn't kill her, but they didn't stop him." She paused to take a long breath and Faith, for one of the few times she could remember, refrained from commenting. This was something Willow had to get out. Any interruption might make her box up again. And the suffering would continue.

"They all tried to stop me. Keep me from crossing line after line. But I wasn't going to let them get in my way. They had nothing to do with her death. They had cared about her, just like I did. But they hadn't saved her, had they? No one rescued Tara. Buffy didn't save her. Xander didn't save her. Anya didn't, Giles definitely didn't. But what hurt most of all? Do you know what, Faith?" Faith was pretty sure she did.

"You didn't save her," she whispered under her breath.

"I didn't," Willow shook her head, staring at the waves lapping at the edges of the pond, "Then I took the magick from Giles and I could hear it. The screaming. The screams of humanity's pain. I could hear every man, woman and child on this planet screeching in agony. It was deafening. Too much. Couldn't handle it. I would stop it. I would stop all the pain. And it would be so much better. It would all be so much better. We're a lot alike," she said suddenly. Faith was jolted out of her 'listening mode' very abruptly.

"What now? You and me?" She snorted, "Sorry girlfriend, but we couldn't be more different."

"I think I understand you, Faith."

"Get in line, Red, and take a number. More people than I can count think they can "understand" me. Never true."

"We want the exact same thing," Willow persisted.

"And what might that be?" Faith asked teasingly.

"We want to be loved. We want to belong. But somehow, things always seem to come out wrong for us." Faith was, for the first time in her entire life, completely and utterly speechless. She too turned to look out over the lake, turning Willow's words over and over in her head. Suddenly, Willow's head snapped to face her.

"Faith?"

"Yeah?" She turned back too and Willow blushed.

"I…well, I'm really glad you came." She reached out her hand and Faith happily took it and squeezed.

"Me too."

That's all for now! I didn't want to have a huge blocky speech, but it just kind of wrote itself that way. Please review, and don't be afraid to criticize, I always want to improve!


	3. Chapter 3

Take a Number

Part 3

Disclaimer: I still own absolutely nothing but the plot.

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"I'm worried," Giles said, looking up from the book he had been reading. Althenea turned her head to look at him.

"About what?"

"Faith. Willow. I'm not sure," he took off his glasses and squeezed the bridge of his nose, attempting to relieve the pressure that had been forming.

"Are you regretting bringing Faith here?" She brushed some of her black hair away from her face and regarded him. Giles had always been firm in his views. He would never carry out a plan unless he was completely convinced it would work. This kind of unease was unlike him. At least, as long as she'd known him she had never seen him act this way. And she had known him…well, long enough.

"No. Yes. Maybe," he sighed and pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and started to clean his glasses, "It's more I'm not sure of how the two might be…interacting." Althenea smiled to herself. So that was it.

"You're worried that Willow will have feelings for Faith that Faith will not reciprocate?"

"Exactly," Giles smiled. It was nice not having to explain himself all the time. Althenea always seemed able to pick up on what he meant with minimal explanation.

"You can't worry, Giles. Whatever happens, it's what the Goddess, the God, or your Powers That Be have in mind."

"Yes, I-I suppose it is."

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Willow sat in the middle of the room, meditating silently. Faith sat in a chair off to the side, watching her. Willow slowly opened one eye and shot Faith a smile. Faith winked at her and she closed her eye, smile still firmly in place. Faith felt a warmth bubbling up and her own smile dimmed. What was up with this?

Willow had never seemed like anyone important to her. And now, suddenly, she was spending her days thinking about her. What she said. 'We're a lot alike.' It was crazy…or was it? 'We want to belong.' Wasn't that completely true? Hadn't her need for affection and her longing for acceptance sent her as far as the dark side of the force? Just like Willow. When what she viewed as her key to what she needed was destroyed, she had…well, 'done a Faith'.

_This is insane_, a voice argued, _you're nothing like her. She is loved and she does belong._ _But_…another voice piped up…_she can't see it. She doesn't see what everyone else does._ Faith sighed and put her head in her hands, rubbing her temples. Arguing with herself. Not the best of signs. But somehow it was true. Willow obviously didn't see herself as Faith saw her. Apparently she had, in her mind's eye, remained the self-defacing girl she was in high school.

_Do people see me differently?_ She wondered. She always thought she knew. But now…maybe she didn't. And it was all because of Willow. She was suddenly feeling warm thinking about her. _No!_ the first voice shouted silently, _it's not what you're thinking!_ _You care for her_, the second voice chimed sagely, _and not just as a friend._

Faith's eyes widened at that thought. Now that was insane! It couldn't be true! Never…her boyfriends. She had had so many boyfriends…_you never were able to make a connection with a man_, her second voice pointed out slyly. And she never had. She had never truly felt connected to anyone besides the Mayor. But he was like a father…never a lover. Never connected…but now she might be connected to Willow. _As if my life isn't messed up enough_, she thought, free from any voices, _I'm a Slayer, a convict, and now I think I'm sorta gay._

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"She was only my second relationship," Willow said as they strolled along a wooded path.

"Oh?"

"Before Tara, I never even considered that I might be gay or anything. Even when I met her, that wasn't how I thought. I just…I knew that I loved her. That she was…well 'she', never even registered. All that mattered was that I cared."

"Oh." Faith looked away, feeling very uncomfortable. That sounded suspiciously like her feelings. Except she had definitely done a lot registering.

"Thanks, Faith." Willow grabbed her hand again and Faith felt the warm, tingling sensation spreading up her arm, "It's been so great being able to talk to you and…I know you would never judge me. And, I want you to know that I'm sorry for judging you."

"No problem," Faith said, slipping her hand away. Willow didn't appear to have noticed. She just continued on her way. _I'm going to have to get used to those little outbursts of affection_. Wait….affection? Did she really think Willow felt affection for her?

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Next chapter will be the last one...I'll give you fair warning, it's a short one. Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

Take a Number

Part 4

Disclaimer: I have no legal rights to this material.

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"We are now approaching Sunnydale, California. Please stow your carry-ons, and place your trays and seats in the upright position. We hope you enjoyed your flight."

Willow smiled out the window at Sunnydale. The knots in her stomach were still there, but she felt so much better knowing she had back-up.

Gently, she laid her hand on Faith's arm and leaned in close.

"Wake up…we're here," she whispered, enjoying the delicious smell of the Slayer's shampoo. Faith twitched and opened her eyes. She let out a momentous yawn.

"Are we? Back in old SunnyD. Never thought I'd come back to this literal hell hole," she glanced at Willow out of the corner of her eye, "Just goes to show how much I love my little Wendy." Willow blushed and smiled. It still seemed crazy. Faith…the dark Slayer, queen of one-night-stands…her girlfriend. Well, sort of. She wasn't fully ready for a new relationship…and Faith understood. They really were two of a kind.

Sometimes she felt a horrible stab of guilt in her stomach. How could she love someone who wasn't Tara? Tara was dead and she was feeling happy…it was wrong. But then she would remember Tara. Really remember. Tara would never have wanted her to 'keep vigil' or anything like that. She always used to say that we are all created in the form of the Goddess…and like the Goddess, we have infinite love. No matter how many people we love, there is room in our heart for every single one of them. Unhappiness or pain on her behalf always made Tara uncomfortable. She hadn't been able to see it. Xander helped her get a glimpse of it on that hill…but Faith gave her the full view.

With a bump, Willow was jolted back to the present and into Sunnydale Airport. Had it really been months since she been here? So much had changed. She wasn't completely sure she was ready to see everyone again. But with Faith at her back, she knew she could overcome any fear.

The seatbelt sign blinked off and both women rose, careful not to bump their heads on the low ceiling over the seats. Faith, full of chivalry and Slayer-strength, grabbed both of their carry-on bags, shoved Willow into line and followed. Willow shook her head and laughed silently.

Once she got out of the plane, past the smiling stewardesses, Willow stood to the side and waited for Faith to emerge. When she did, Willow held out her hand. Faith grinned and slapped her hand onto Willow's and squeezed tightly. Willow thought she felt a few bones crack but didn't care. She turned and, hand-in-hand, they headed for the light.

**_End_**


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